EVERYWHERE BLUE: A Novel in Verse

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Carol at http://carolwscorner.blogspot.com. Thank you, Carol, for hosting!

My posts have been a little shorter with the summer. Have been out and about as much as I can and seeing friends and enjoying my post-vaccination freedom here in Upstate NY. I hope restrictions are loosening up elsewhere.

The novel in verse, EVERYWHERE BLUE, BY JOANNE ROSSMASSLER FRITZ, published this year by Holiday House deserves another shout out. On 4/22/21, Jone Macculoch posted an excellent interview with the author here if you want to know more about this talented poet.

What I loved most about this book was the musical terms and feeling that coursed through the novel from first page to last. For instance, the book is divided into four parts and each part is named by a musical term: Diminuendo, Adagio, Staccato, and the last is Crecendo. Like a piece of music, the plot and tension builds through poetry.

The novel begins with this poem:

(this is just the first part) 

NOVEMBER

November pulls me down.
Like a diminuendo in music,
gradually dying away.
Darkness falls too early
and the chill creeps in.

Before dusk,

        before we learn the truth
        about my brother,

this day plays out
like any ordinary day,
a symphony of sameness. 

Just the way I like it.

The twelve year-old oboe playing main character, Madrigal, faces a problem: her brother, named Strum, has disappeared from college. This is discovered early on and the rest of the book kept me on edge. It’s a mystery, and the author tells the story in poems, mostly free verse, but peppered with carefully crafted and well placed forms such as villanelle, couplets and haiku. As the mystery of the missing brother plays out, we get to know Madrigal’s parents and sibs as they attempt, each in their own way, to deal with this mysterious loss.

Chekov said that happy families are all alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. By the end of the novel, we understand what it is in this particular family that has caused it to be troubled.

I won’t, of course, reveal how this plot resolves, but the ending gives us hope, and this is a family we like, grow to understand, and in which we see ourselves. I love that in the end, we see Madrigal, who has struggled with playing her oboe, finds more feeling in her music as her family heals.

11 thoughts on “EVERYWHERE BLUE: A Novel in Verse”

  1. I love novels in verse and this one sounds terrific! I immediately dropped everything to see if it is available in my district’s ebook collection and it is! WooHoo! Thanks for the suggestion.

  3. The book sounds fascinating. I love the musical names of the characters too. I will keep my eyes open for this one. I too checked my ebook site, but sadly it is not available there yet. Thanks for the review, Janice. Keep enjoying that post-vaccine freedom!

  5. Ohhh, this sounds great, Janice! Thanks for the review and for sharing! I will add it to my books to read list. I’ve never read a novel in verse before and since I love music, this will be a great first one to try.

  6. ooooh! I need to read this one. I love the musical language and names. Thanks for the review. And, hooray for getting out and about! School ended for me yesterday. I came home and napped. Now, I hope to get out and about some, too!

  9. I’m another “haven’t heard of this one, off to track it down!” Thanks for the review and for holding back on the spoilers!!!

  10. Janice, I have heard of this book and so appreciate what you have posted. It sounds like a novel appropriate for middle school children. The ending of the verse you shared struck me as so in touch with a reflective pre-teens’s perception of life.
    this day plays out
    like any ordinary day,
    a symphony of sameness

  11. I’m getting so excited to read this novel (my copy is on order but hasn’t arrived yet). Thanks for the review and the preview!

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